Petrovskaya Spit is where St Petersburg ends in water. The narrow point of Petrovsky Island runs a kilometre and a half into the gulf, with moorings full of yachts on both sides and, at the tip, a view of the Lakhta Center, the port and open water. The Central Yacht Club, the largest in the city, is here, and in the sailing season boats go out every evening. For anyone who wants to see the city from the water, this is the starting point.
The Central Yacht Club moorings on the spit. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The spit and the club
The Central Yacht Club settled on the spit in the 1950s; according to the Citywalls database, by the 1980s it had boathouses, a clubhouse and moorings for several hundred yachts. Today several clubs and marinas stretch along the spit. The moorings are closed, but the road down the middle is open, and from it you see everything: masts, hulls, the way out to the gulf.
Boathouses and club buildings. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The tip
At the end of the spit is an open platform above the gulf. From here you see the Lakhta Center across the water, the Yacht Bridge and Krestovsky to the right, the Marine Facade port and the reclaimed land of Vasilyevsky to the left. At sunset people stand here with cameras while yachts come back in from the gulf.
The tip of the spit, facing the gulf and the Lakhta Center. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Getting out under sail
The water is the reason to come. From May to October, skippered yachts leave the spit for two or three hours on the gulf — to Lakhta, to the port, sometimes to Kronstadt — sailing or motor, shared or private, with or without the sunset. Book ahead: sunset weekends sell out. Routes, boat types and terms from the spit and from Krestovsky can be compared on GetBoat. Sailing schools at the clubs run weekend courses for those who want to learn rather than ride.
A sailing trip into the gulf from the spit. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
